Phoenix Trusted BIOS Ships in LG, Samsung, Fujitsu PCs

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Phoenix Technologies had begun shipping its trusted BIOS in PCs built by LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics and Fujitsu Ltd., the company said.

Phoenix launched its Core Managed Environment (cME) last November, and said it would begin shipping is software to notebook makers early in 2004. Tomorrow, LG will begin shipping CME inside of its own notebooks.

On Monday, Samsung said it installed the cME FirstBIOS software into all of its desktops and notebooks, while Fujitsu has also installed a version of the software, called cME FirstWare Vault, inside certain notebooks designed specifically for the Japanese market.

The overt purpose of the Phoenix cME BIOS is to provide an interface between the forthcoming elements of the “trusted PC”: a trusted computing module, or secure chip mounted on the motherboard; and the “nexus”, a secure software module that can be designed into the operating system. All three elements form part of Microsoft’s Next-Generation Secure Computing Base, formerly code-named Palladium.

Phoenix, meanwhile, uses the term “cME” to describe its trusted environment as a whole, encompassing the BIOS as well as the trusted applications it itself has designed. The BIOS portion itself is known as cME FirstBIOS.

“There’s a continuous evolution here,” said Michael Goldgof, vice president of marketing and products for Phoenix, said in an interview. “We start from the whole idea that now everything is networked, and because it is networked, it is vulnerable to attacks on the core system software. CME allows us to design a new consensus of trust and security, which we call a chain of trust, our attempt to redefine the core system software as well as the technology of the OS.”

In securing the PC, the cME creates a hidden partition which Windows cannot access and is only available to the BIOS. LG Electronics, the second largest Korea chaebol, is expected to confirm Wednesday that it will license the cME technology for use in its notebooks, which are currently shipping.

Meanwhile, on Monday Samsung said it would install the software on all of its machines, which it has begun shipping. The company did not specify how it would use the technology, but said it would include FirstBIOS as well as other trusted applications.

“Phoenix is at the forefront of the industry, leading the evolution of device firmware to increase its capabilities beyond those of traditional PC BIOS,” said H.S. Kim, executive vice president and general manager of Samsung, in a statement.”We have been very pleased with Phoenix products not only for traditional quality, but also for the differentiation it offers and for helping us improve our time to market. This helps us to exceed the demands of increasingly connected and digitally dependent users. With cME-certified Phoenix core system software in our PCs, Samsung can feel confident that we are offering the best digital machines with unique capabilities that our users expect.”

Fujitsu, meanwhile, began using the cME technology in a limited rollout last month in Japan, inside the company’s FMV-DeskPower C90GW/C desktop PC and FMV-Biblo MG70G/ST notebook.

Fujitsu, however, chose to install the FirstWare Vault software designed by Phoenix, a trusted application designed by the company. FirstWare Vault also creates a hidden partition on the hard drive. However, Fujitsu used it to store a backup copy of the OS, in case the user needed to reinstall.

Fujitsu’s strategy will eliminate the need to ship the OS “reinstall” disks that have begun to ship in today’s PCs. The disks don’t contain a full version of the OS, but just the files needed to reinstall it in case of an error. By hiding that reinstall software on a protected partition, the company saved itself the costs of distributing the media, Fujitsu said.

This story has been updated at 5:20 PM on March 9, 2004 to add additional comments from Phoenix executives and LG’s use of the cME software.

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